MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY. ^ 



THE 



SUBSTANCE OF WHICH WAS DELIVERED 



BEFORE THy. 



\ 

SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA 



AT ITS 



LATE MEETING IN HARRISBURG, (PA.) OCT. 1827. 



BY JOHN BRECKINRIDGE, 

Junior Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



iSalttmote: 

ARMSTRONG & PLASKITT, 134 MARKET STREET. 
John D. Toy, printer. 
1828. 



1 



V 



PREFACE. 



The Synod of Philadelphia, by whose appointment 
the following discourse was delivered, were kind 
enough to express an opinion, (in a resolution to that 
effect,) favourable to its publication. The writer how- 
ever, was not then satisfied, that it was his duty to 
appear before the public as an author, at all; and espe- 
cially, on a subject of such vital moment to the church 
of God, and in the discussion of topics so intimately 
connected with the character and work of the minis- 
ters of reconciliation. The delay of its appearance 
until the present time, has been occasioned, partly by 
the difficulty of settling the question of publication. 
And then, after it was decided, at the instance of judi- 
cious friends, whose opinions were requested — to put it 
to press, a still farther delay became necessa:/ in pre- 
paring the manuscript for that use. 

In doing this, some local and other allusions not pro- 
per for publication, have been omitted: the discussion 
has been in some cases expanded: and new illustrations 



iv 

introduced. The substance of the discourse however, 
and the train of thought have been faithfully retained. 

This very imperfect attempt, to set in its true light, 
the most important of all human functions, is respect- 
fully and affectionately dedicated to the Synod of Phi- 
ladelphia, and especially to the more youthful servants 
of our Lord, who have recently entered on, or are 
now looking to, the sacred office, by their friend and 
brother, 

THE AUTHOR. 



A SERMON. 



Matthew xxviii. 18, 19, 20. 

And Jesus spake unto them saying;; All power is given unto me, in 
heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptiz- 
ing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you: and lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
world. 

The religion of Christ was designed by its author 
to fill and to rule the world. 

From distant ages it has been a subject of promise, 
and of prophecy in the word of God, "that the earth 
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the 
waters cover the sea: that the kingdoms of this world 
shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his 
Christ: and that all flesh shall together see, the sal- 
vation of God." 

The Apostle Paul in his celebrated discourse before 
the Areopagus at Athens, announces Christianity, to 
the exclusion of all other systems, as the religion of 
mankind. The nature of man required some religion, 
and his state of sin, the religion of Christ. As God had 
made of one blood all nations, however scattered 
over all the face of the earth, so one system of reli- 



6 



gion was alike adapted to all; that system was Christi- 
anity. What therefore God had provided through the 
death, and attested by the resurrection of his Son, He 
commanded all men, every where to receive, under 
the awful sanctions of an appointed and approaching day 
of judgment.* 

It is the "common salvation" "Like the rising 
sun, it belongs to all." 

The passage selected for the text, with the kindred 
parts of the other Evangelists, embodies the same great 
truth, in the form of a command from the head of the 
church, and the sovereign of the world. ii All power 
is given unto me, §*c. 8?c; go ye therefore and teach 
all nations; preach the gospel to every creature: he 
that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not 
shall be damned." 

It exhibits a missionary charter founded in divine 
right, sustained by divine power, extending through 
all ages, and embracing all nations, in its provisions 
and its penalties. 

And yet after the lapse of nearly eighteen centuries 
since this command was given, our holy religion has 
made but little more progress through the earth, than 
it had done at the death of the last Apostle. Three 
quarters of our globe, have never heard the name of 
Jesus. Of the eight or nine hundred millions of men 
computed now to inhabit the world, only two hundred 

-Acts xvii. 16—32. 



millions are even nominally christians; of these only- 
six or seven millions at most, are supposed to be chris- 
tians in fact; and they, it is by common consent allow- 
ed, are, as a body, by no means awake to the claims of 
their Lord upon them: they display in no adequate 
measure, the spirit of Jesus, in their love for the souls 
of men: and that union of heart and action, in spread- 
ing the gospel on which God's promised blessing for- 
ever rests, and which carries conviction and conquest 
with it wherever it turns, has well-nigh perished, 
amidst the feuds and schisms of a thousand sects. 

And while this is the condition of the christian 
church, it is almost to calculation true, so far as it can 
be a matter of human knowledge, that more of our race 
die every week, than are converted to Christ through- 
out the world every year! 

Such are the facts which stare us in the face, in the 
nineteenth century of the christian dispensation. 

And can it be true, that this is the world for which 
the Redeemer died; and is this that body of which he 
is the head? Are these the nations to which, eighteen 
centuries ago, he commanded his gospel to be preached? 

And have so many "successive worlds" of immortal 
men, been swept to eternity, in that long, dark night 
of years, without ever hearing of a Saviour's love, while 
the word of life, lay buried in the church, like the roll 
which was rescued, by the hand of Hilkiah, from the 
ruins of the Temple? 



8 



No christian man, can contrast the fulness of the 
divine provision, and the antiquity of the divine com- 
mand to make that provision known to all that live, 
with the present very limited influence of Christianity 
in the world, without emotions that are awful, and op- 
pressive to his soul! 

For an issue so disastrous, for a failure so great and 
dreadful, there must exist some cause — and that cause 
must stand connected with no common responsibility. 

In searching for this cause, it cannot be said, that 
God has so decreed it: for, while it is true that "he 
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" 
it is in no such way as to impair the free and respon- 
sible agency of his creatures.* The same reasoning 
from the divine purpose which will excuse our neglect 
of sending the gospel to mankind, will acquit us of the 
guilt of not being christians ourselves; — for our own 
state and character are as much the effect of the so- 
vereign will and power of God, as the state and charac- 
ter of other men and other nations. It is in vain there- 
fore, to appeal to the divine sovereignty, for the pur- 
pose of removing responsibility from those to whom 
the Son of God especially entrusted the publication of 
his gospel. 

And yet it is to be feared, that what is called by an 
able modern author! Religious Fatalism, "that is, 
permitting the unmolested existence of sin" in the 



* Acts ii. 23, compared with John xix. 11. f Foster, 



9 



heathen world, because God permits it — leaving the 
nations that know not God without the gospel, under 
the falacious notion that his time for them to receive it 
has not arrived — is extensively prevalent in the chris- 
tian church. 

Will it be said, that the opportunity of having the 
gospel in substance, was afforded in Noah to all nations; 
but directly and fully, in the ministry of the Apostles; 
and that having expelled it by resistance, or lost it by 
neglect, they were given over by God, to a reprobate 
mind? 

However true this may be, as to the ages immedi- 
ately following the epochs referred to, it can with no 
propriety, be affirmed of the present generations of the 
heathen, or of those, for ages anterior; for as neither we, 
nor our fathers, have made known to them the salvation 
of Christ, they can with no truth, be said to have re- 
jected it, or to have lost it. 

But the unconditional command of God, leaves no 
discretionary power with the depositaries of the gospel. 
"Thou shall speak my words unto them whether 
they will hear, or whether they will forbear;"* and 
the only alternative allowed to the people, is submis- 
sion or ruin; — "He that believeth shall be saved, he 
that believeth not shall be damned." No rejection, 
no loss of the truth therefore, by the nations of the 
earth, can in the least degree, remit the obligation of 
Christ's commissioned agents, whoever they may be a 

*Ezekiel ii. 7. 



10 



"to preach the gospel to every creature, even to the 
end of the world." 

And again; the gospel is attended by the power of 
God. It comprises the means of its own propagation, 
when administered aright. It comes prepared to over- 
power all resistance. It goes forth from God, con- 
quering and to conquer — appointed by Heaven, "to 
have and to hold" all lands in the Saviour's name. 

Whatever form then, of opposition to the gospel, the 
wickedness of men, or of devils may assume — however 
much it may be resisted, or however much neglected, 
and for a season lost — yet, that cannot be the reason of 
the gospePs failure, which the gospel came divinely 
furnished and commissioned to destroy. 

And what shall we say of those countries in which 
6( the people have been destroyed for lack of know- 
ledge" fast by the sanctuaries of the living God? 
What of those countries in which the matchless art 
of printing, has seemed to restore the lost gift of 
tongues, and Bible societies have substantiated, in their 
mighty and diffusive operation, the type of a great 
river, beheld in the visions of the prophet, issuing from 
the temple of God — and yet the people perish? Is 
there not something more than divine sovereignty, or 
human guilt in general, to be looked for, as explana- 
tory of the facts — that the Bible is closed against the 
people — or if unsealed, and diffused, that it exerts no 
ascendant power upon the mass of the people — and 
that even when the gospel is professedly preached and 



11 



heard, so little is achieved commensurate to the boun- 
ty of God, or the spiritual wants of men? 

It appearing then, that no sufficient reason can else- 
where be found, for the very partial influence of our holy 
religion in the world, we turn to the christian church. 
And here we approach the limits of a direct and fear- 
ful responsibility. Here is the pillar — the ground 
of the truth. From this as the seat of God, and the 
centre of action, must the word of the Lord be sound- 
ed out, into all the world — or his people must meet the 
hot displeasure of their sovereign Lord. 

But there is a higher responsibility still, than that 
which appertains to the church in general. There are 
those to whom the planting, the watering and the ex- 
tending, even of the church itself, are under God com- 
mitted. Wherefore, the inquiry ascends to the office, 
and attaches the persons of the ministers of Christ. 

In pursuing this subject, we shall attempt to establish 
the following proposition, viz: 

That the Ministers op reconciliation, being 
the authorised functionaries in this great 
work, any failure in its success, must always 
be owing mainly, to their abuse of their solemn 

TRUST. 

For, I. The ministry of the gospel is God's 

STANDING ORDINANCE FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE 
WORLD. 

It is not made a question, by any who profess to 
believe the Bible, whether those honoured personages, 



12 



to whom our text was directly addressed, were clothed 
by their Lord with a full commission for all nations 
during their natural lives — or whether their extraordi- 
nary efforts in spreading the gospel under that com- 
mission, were sustained by his authority, and made 
triumphant by his power. 

But they are gone, long gone, to receive the recom- 
pense of reward on high; and can only mingle now, in 
the service of our earth, with those celestial visitants, 
who are sent forth to minister for them who shall be 
heirs of salvation!* 

Who then shall succeed to their toils and labours, in 
the Saviour's cause? Did they finish the work which 
the gospel was intended to accomplish? Did they so 
plant the tree of life, that thenceforward it would yield 
spontaneous fruits, and without the cultivating hand of 
man, unfold those leaves which are for the healing of 
the nations? Did they make these nations willing to 
come for its blessings from the dark corners of the 
earth, and the distant islands of the sea? Did they 
make it possible for men to call on him in whom they 
have not believed; to believe in him of whom they 
have not heard; or to hear without a preacher?! 

It can only be the fanatic, or the infidel, who con- 
tends for the cessation of the ministerial office and du- 
ties, in the person of the Apostles. As it has pleased 
God "by the foolishness of preaching, to save them 



*Revelatiuns xxii. 11. 



| Romans ix. 14. 



13 

that believe, so there will be need of a ministry, while 
there are sinners to be saved. 

Timothy was not an apostle; yet Paul addresses him 
in such language as this: "the things that thou hast 
heard of me, among many witnesses, the same commit 
thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others 
also."* Here are at least two generations of minis- 
ters, besides the apostles, distinctly recognized. The 
text itself, is direct and conclusive, as to the perpetuity 
of the office. "Go ye into all the world — teach all 
nations — and lo! 1 am with you always, even to the end 
of the world;" i. e. of the christian state or age, which 
is confessedly the last dispensation of God to man, 
and therefore, must reach to the close of time. 

The office being then perpetual, in its essential func- 
tions, we need not stay to discuss the divine right, of 
sects and names. Wherever the office is lodged, there 
this appeal asks a hearing in the name of Jesus. Let 
those who think they hold it, take with it all its res- 
ponsible services, and obligations. They who claim 
this high prerogative, are bound to exhibit a corres- 
ponding distinction, in the superiority of their endow- 
ments, and the success of their ministrations. It does 
not a little weaken the assumptions occasionally made 
on this subject, to find that they often lay most stress 
upon their exclusive succession to the apostles of Christ, 
who display fewest evidences of a divine commission, 
in their personal qualifications, or ministerial work. 

*2 Tim. ii. 2— Titus i. 5— Ephes.iy. 7— 14— and Acts xx. 28, 
3 



14 



But the word of God reveals to us not only the per- 
petuity of the ministry as a standing ordinance, but the 
concomitant fact, that it has been set apart and fur- 
nished by the Deity, for the great work of converting 
the world. Thus the preachers of the gospel are styled 
the "ambassadors of Christ" to men, proclaiming the 
message of reconciliation;* wherever they go, in the 
spirit of their station, they are said, "to triumph in 
Christ," and to make "manifest the savour of his 
knowledge:" the result of their ministrations is so de- 
cisive, that they become of necessity, "a savour of life, 
or a savour of death to every hearer;" and it is unto 
God "a sweet savour," however it may result; and 
though of themselves they are in no sense sufficient; 
for who is sufficient for these things? yet they are qua- 
lified abundantly by Christ their head, who sent, and 
who sustains them.t In Him "they can do all 
things" — "their sufficiency is of God;" by his pow- 
er and spirit they are made "able ministers of the 
New Testament." Of them the Redeemer said, "he 
that receiveth rou, receiveth me, and he that receiveth 
me receiveth him that sent me."% 

Perhaps a very brief analysis of the text will furnish 
as comprehensive a view as the Bible affords, of the 
divine authority, the fitness, the efficacy, and conse- 
quent accountableness of this office, in the whole ex- 
tent of its operations, to the end of time. Thus it h 



2 Cor. v. 18. 



f 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6. 



I Math. s. 40. 



15 



written, "go ye, and teach all nations, and lo! I am 
with you always, even unto the end of the world;" — 
that is, your office and its duties have no limit, but the 
sphere of the earth, and the end of time. "Teach all 
nations:" i. e. evangelize them, convert them from 
heathenism to Christianity, and from sin to God. "Bap- 
tize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost;" £. e. according to the model 
given you, found and fashion my church, and admit 
them into it. "Teach them to observe all things what- 
soever I have commanded you:" i. e. edify them, in- 
struct them, lead them on from the first principles of 
the doctrine of Christ unto perfection; and my reign 
establish in the church thus erected. "All power is 
given unto me in heaven, and in earth, and lo, I am 
with you always," &c. &c: that is, do all in my 
name, by my power, and to my glory, and I will 
give efficacy to the means you use, and triumph to the 
cause you have undertaken. Such is a compendious 
view of the broad and divinely sanctioned commission, 
given to the apostles and their successors to the end of 
the world. 

But it is a distressing truth that the distinguished of- 
fice thus conferred, may be so impaired by corruption, 
or crippled by interference, that the work of the gospel 
cannot, to any adequate degree, be carried on through 
its agency. 

If God has a plan for the publication of the gospel, 
that plan must be the best; and it is equally evident 



16 



that it must have been provided from the origin of the 
system; for by it the system is, instrumentally, to be 
kept alive and extended in the world: it is also evident 
that God's plan, whatever it may be, is of paramount 
authority and perpetual obligation: and it must be as 
much beyond the improvement, as it is above the con- 
trol of men. Every addition must be a clog; every 
subtraction must weaken it; and every change, being 
from the divine to the human in the provision, must 
just so far impair its goodly operation. The divine ar- 
rangement, in its original constitution, must be "per- 
fect and entire, wanting nothing." To supersede the 
plan of God then, is of consequence, to assail the sove- 
reignty and wisdom of its author, to violate the charter 
of the church, and retard the conversion of the world. 

Now it is obvious, from what has been said, that God 
has originated such a plan, for the publication of the 
gospel; and that it is directly announced in the pas- 
sage of scripture under our consideration: — or in other 
words, the ministry of reconciliation, is God's stand- 
ing ordinance, for the conversion of the world. 

It follows then, that every interference with this sa- 
cred and awful office, must affect, in its measure, the 
conversion of the world. If it be not brought into 
adequate use, — if it be committed to unholy^ ignorant, 
or designing men — if, at home and abroad they be not 
called of God — if they enter on its solemn duties en- 
cumbered by any thing extraneous, any thing earthly, 
any thing selfish— -if they depend on any helps but those 



17 



peculiar to their function, and derived from God, whe- 
ther it be "power or might" or learning, or elo- 
quence, or wealth, or patronage — in the same degree 
will their hands be held, and their success restricted. 
The power of the service will be the Nazarite's power 
no more: the office will be shorn of its strength: its 
glory will have departed! If they do not go forth, 
all other schemes will be defective; all other efforts, to 
a great extent, will fail. If they go forth in any but 
the true spirit and form of character, they too must fail. 
But wise and faithful servants will be sustained by the 
power of God, and made abundantly successful in their 
ministrations. 

It is owing, we suppose, to a want of reflection, that 
good men are sometimes heard speaking to each other of 
the need, and praying to heaven for the gift, of new and 
untried means for the conversion of the world. Essays 
to do good auxiliary to the great plan of spreading the 
gospel by a standing ministry, are highly to be com- 
mended. Whatever will aid it in bringing God's 
truth to bear upon the souls of men, we should with 
all our power promote. An inventive benevolence in 
this way distinguishes, and adorns the age in which we 
live. But it is to be feared, that in our busy ingenuity, 
we do not sufficiently realize the existence, perfection, 
and authority of the divine arrangement. Whilst we 
are adventuring upon a world of new expedients, there 
slumbers, in the bosom of the church, that ordinance, 
which has power from God, to recal to the field the 



18 



"sons of consolation," and "the sons of thunder." In 
its proper exercise, the days of Paul, of Apollos and 
of Cephas, might revisit our earth. 

It is, therefore, perhaps, the most hopeful token of 
the present age, that many of the people of God, are be- 
ginning to sigh for the spirit, and to restore the insti- 
tutions of primitive Christianity. Whatever indicates 
in our day, a reverence for the character of the prime- 
val church, whatever is heard to "ask for the old 
paths" and seen "to walk where is the good way>" 
foretells the coming of a better era. 

We have long enough soothed ourselves to rest, by 
comparing the partial efforts made for the gospel in our 
own day, with the lethargy of ages recently elapsed. It is 
time we had returned for our model, to the stature and 
spirit of the apostolic day; and for our sphere of ac- 
tion to the family of man. It is time that Christ Jesus 
were restored, in his fulness to the ministry; and the 
ministry displayed to the world, in the whole armour of 
God. Consider, 

II. That the ministers op Christ, if faith- 
ful TO THEIR TRUST, MAY HAVE IN EVERY AGE OF 
THE WORLD ALL THE HELPS THAT WERE AFFORDED, 
EVEN TO THE APOSTLES THEMSELVES; 1. e. ALL THAT 
ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE RIGHT AND SUCCESSFUL DIS- 
CHARGE OF THE DUTIES OF THE OFFICE. 

The nature of this service, demands help from above 
at every step. The office of the ministry as we have 
shown, is to endure to the end of time: and therefore 



19 

the qualifications necessary to the proper discharge of 
its duties, must be perpetual also. It is true the Apos- 
tles had some peculiar gifts, because they were in pe- 
culiar circumstances. They had the gifts of inspiration, 
of miracles, of prophecy, and of tongues. Through 
them, as instruments, the system of Christianity was 
established in the world; and for this they required, 
and of course received, extraordinary aids. It was 
fitting that the Deity, should appoint for the religion 
of his Son, a public entry into the world, signalized 
by the display of divine glory: and that its title to the 
earth, should be ratified in the sight of all nations, by 
the King of kings. But we have the results of the 
divine interposition, and of these uncommon endow- 
ments, though we have not the endowments them- 
selves. Thus while we have not their inspiration, we 
have the infallible word, which they were in that way, 
qualified to record for every succeeding age: for "all 
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is pro- 
fitable for doctrine, for reproof for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness; that the man of God 
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
ivorks.* We have not the gift of prophecy or of 
miracles; but we have the testimony of both, and the 
"germinating" testimony of the former; and at the 
same time, resources equally adequate, though not so 
direct from Heaven, are afforded us, for acquiring the 

*2 Timothy iii. 16, 17, and 1 Peter i. 11, 12. 



20 



languages, and thus reaching the consciences, of all 
nations. Their official relation is to ours, what the 
first of each order of tree and of plant at the creation 
was, to each of the same order, since, in continued 
succession. We are told that the first of each order 
of tree and plant sprang full formed and perfect, from 
the hand of the Creator. As yet there was no sun, no 
rain, no dew, nor man to till the ground. "But each 
had its seed in itself-" and anon the process of growth, 
was to succeed that of primitive creation. "There 
went up a mist from the earth which watered the 
whole face of the ground:"* and the rain descended, 
and the sun shone forth; thenceforward the oak was to 
spring from the acorn; from the impalpable seed, was 
to arise the tree, which lodges the fowls of heaven, in 
its branches; and divine power was to carry on its 
operations, clothed in the form of visible weakness. So 
is it, in the new, and more glorious creation of the Son 
of God. It was needful that miraculous, and extraor- 
dinary powers should attend the first preaching of the 
gospel, and establish it in the world. This done, the 
system was stripped of its visible power, and in the 
form of apparently unattended weakness, set to grow 
in the earth. The miraculous endowments of the 
primitive ministry had done their part; and the more 
natural, but through God, not less effectual process of 
ordinary means, was now to take their place. But 

* Genesis i. 11, 12, and ii. 5, 6. 



21 

God's ministering servants still have all the helps 
that were essential to the Apostles, supposing the king- 
dom of Christ set up in the world; nay they have 
all that God ever made use of, so far as we know, in 
the Apostles themselves, for the conversion of the souls 
of men. 

It may not be unprofitable to examine, more minutely, 
this interesting subject. 

1. We have a great system of truth — whose 
claim to be a revelation from God, is confirmed to us 
by the most indisputable evidence — which is our per- 
fect, and exclusive guide in instructing mankind. It 
makes known to us infallibly, the nature, will, and law 
of God; our origin, condition and eternal prospects; 
our fall by sin, with its ruinous results here and here- 
after; and above all, displays in the life, the sacrifice, 
the resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God, the 
means of our recovery from eternal death. As it has 
been pertinently said, "the materials of our work are 
thus made ready to our hands, and are at the same 
time admirably adapted to our use. The facts exhibit- 
ed, are more extraordinary than ever entered the mind 
of man, in its widest excursions, combining all the so- 
briety of truth with more than the grandeur of fiction; 
and the doctrines, connected with these facts, by the 
easiest and most natural inference, are of infinite mo- 
ment. Our situation compared with other speakers, 
resembles the Angel of the Apocalypse, who was seen 
standing in the sun."* 

4 * Robert Hall. 



22 



However then, the Apostles were made to differ from 
their successors, in the manner of furnishing them for 
their ministry, the matter of their preaching, is, in its 
perfection and fulness, supplied to us in the written 
word; and the truth which it imparts, is, the same 
power of God, the same "sword of the Spirit" in our 
use, as it was in theirs, when we "handle" it under the 
guidance of that omnipotent agent. For, 

2. We have the same spirit of office with 
the Apostles. 

The discontinuance of the gift of inspiration, and the 
reasons for it, have been already mentioned. The same 
Spirit of truth, however, who indicted the sacred scrip- 
tures, still accompanies their faithful dispensation, by 
the appointed ministers of Christ. Without this en- 
dowment from on high, they are totally unfit for the 
sacred office; they resemble "mariners, who should 
leave the winds out of the account of forces, in prepar- 
ing a vessel for the ocean; and think only of oars and 
rowers." "The demonstration of the Spirit,"* is 
the power of the ministry. Divine aid is the measure 
of its success; and so dependence on the Spirit through 
whom it is dispensed, is the strength, as it is the dis- 
tinguishing characteristic, of every devoted servant of 
Jesus Christ. "The spirit of wisdom and of revela- 
tion in the knowledge of Christ " is "granted" by 
the head of the church to all his members; but to his 



*1 Corinthians ii. 4, 10, 11, 12. 



23 



ministering servants, the Spirit of their office is pro- 
mised as its inseparable concomitant, and the only effi- 
cient cause of its success in the world, "/if is expedient 
for you that I go away: for if 1 go not away, the 
Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart 
I will send him unto you. Jind when he is come he 
will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and 
of judgment. The Father will give him unto you, 
that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit 
of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it 
seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know 
him; for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you."* 

He appears no longer in cloven tongues and wonder- 
stirring miracles of visible divinity. The Lord is not 
in the great and strong wind which rent the mountains, 
and brake the rocks in pieces; nor in the earthquake, 
nor in the fire. But "yet" does the Lord pass by us: 
and to those that like the holy prophet wait and watch 
for him on Horeb, his presence is yet given, in ii the 
still small voice" of spiritual manifestation, t His pro- 
mise and his power still attend the heralds of his word. 

Never perhaps, since the apostolic age, has the Holy 
Spirit been so abundantly, as in this century, poured out 
on the earth. It is becoming indeed, the era of the 
Spirit's ministration. Revivals of religion, properly so 
called, were perhaps never more deep, or more trans- 
forming; and never was the glory of Jesus more clearly 

* John xvi. 7—10, and xiv. 16, 17. f 1 Kings xix. 11, 12. 



24 



displayed, in the conversion of a great multitude of sin- 
ners unto God. 

Like all things heavenly that come down to dwell 
on earth, this divine influence, has been sometimes di- 
luted, and sometimes profaned. But shall we therefore, 
reject, or deride the work of the Almighty? As well 
might we charge with impurity, the genial showers of 
heaven, because in descending to water the earth, many 
a "pellucid drop" is absorbed in the desert, rebounds 
from the rugged rock, or mingles with the putrid pool. 

May these revivals of the work of the Lord, be the 
first fruits of that more copious effusion of the Spirit, by 
which a nation shall be born in a day! 

3. As HERALDS, OR PREACHERS OF THE GOSPEL, 
WE HAVE THE ENTIRE ENDOWMENT, OR QUALIFICA- 
TION of the Apostles. 

It is striking to observe, that when miracles were 
wrought, in aid of the Apostles, it was only to make 
way for them as preache? % s; and it was the truth preach- 
ed, not the miracle, that under God, did the work of 
conversion. 

On the day of Pentecost, while the miracle astound- 
ed, and rivetted the assembly, it was the preaching of 
the gospel, which "pricked to the heart" the repent- 
ing multitude, and indicated, to their convicted con- 
sciences, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin 
of the world." And in the very interesting example 
of Cornelius, though an angel, and two revelations, in- 
tervened, during the progress of the events recorded^. 



25 



it was only to prepare the way for the preacher and his 
hearers, to meet on the ground of the gospel; and all ex- 
traordinary interposition then gave place to the esta- 
blished ordinances of the church. So also it was with 
the Apostles of Christ, and the jailor at Philippi. The 
earthquake shook the foundations of the prison-house, 
and rent its massive bolts away. The chains of the 
prisoners fell from around them, by the miraculous 
power of God. But it was the preaching of the cross, 
which emancipated from the still heavier chains of sin, 
the soul of the trembling jailor. It is by divine arrange- 
ment, a great general principle, that the preaching of 
Christ crucified, is the power of God unto salvation. 
"Jlfter that in the wisdom of God, the world by 
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the fool- 
ishness of preaching to save them that believe"* 
There is in this service, no external splendor; no in- 
trinsic power: but it has pleased God by it, in a prin- 
ciple degree, to extend the influence of the truth on 
earth. Nor was its efficacy restricted to apostolic her- 
alds. Wherever Jesus is directly preached unto men; 
wherever the philosophical, diluted, artificial style of 
pulpit-address is laid aside; and the eloquence of sim- 
ple truth, common sense, and a warm heart, in love 
with human happiness and divine glory, are found; in 
a word, wherever, instead of presenting himself, the 
preacher becomes God's medium to the people, and is 



* 1 Corinthians i. 21. 



26 



lost to their view, in the heavenly light with which he is 
invested, there still, and as ever, is it the power of God. 

Not that God's word is unequal to the work of its 
own interpretation, or can be said without the most 
daring presumption and impiety, when unattended and 
alone, to "injure" his creatures. But simply that it. has 
pleased God, by the ministry, to take the attention of 
mankind, and thus direct them to the written word; or 
where that word is not possessed, the truth spoken, 
is still the power of God unto salvation; and as a gene- 
ral fact, the preaching of the gospel has been appointed 
and blessed by God, to form the tie, which connects the 
knowledge of the truth, with the saving of the soul. 

Now this help, in its essential, efficient character, still 
attends the ministers of reconciliation. And perhaps 
the word of God has never had so deep, so extended a 
hearing from .the earth, as now. Especially is this 
true, of the happy land in which we live. Here where 
discussion is so free, and the gospel so unfettered; 
where every variety of opinion is tolerated, and every 
form of sect protected ; where Bibles begin so much to 
abound; where the love of liberty is identified with an 
enthusiastic regard for public speaking; where the ge- 
nius of our institutions promotes a spirit of inquiry; and 
the diffusion of knowledge is felt to be the best secu- 
rity to our inestimable rights; the pulpit is destined, 
if properly sustained, to exert a moral power, hereto- 
fore unknown on earth. 



27 

4. We have, in common with the Apostles, 
the pastoral work and power; that is, authority 
from God, and welcome, or at least permission from 
men, to preach, not only "publicly " but "from house 
to house." Have we not this admirable help, more 
abundantly than they? Are there not more houses 
open to us? more of our fellow-men who will hear? Is 
it not as efficient now, as it was then? The want of its 
efficient power, is, we fear, only the absence of its effi- 
cient use. It domesticates the gospel at the fireside ; 
follows the family home; lays hold on all the tender, 
and strong, and peculiar associations of the domestic 
circle; it traces the public hearer into private life; ana- 
lyzes the large assembly into its individual parts; pres- 
ses the truth upon each person, and adapts it to each 
case. It causes the gospel to be heard during the week, 
by those who will not hear it on the Sabbath-day; it 
pursues the sinner to his last retreat; insulates his soul 
from all the world, and lodges in its deepest chambers, 
the call of God. It arrests the conscience in the pun- 
gent personality of the law of God, saying "thou art 
the man;" while it points the despairing penitent, to 
Jesus on the cross. 

5. We have no less than they, the providence 
op God to sustain us in the work of the gospel. 
"All power, in heaven and in earth" attends us, in 
the presence of him who "is head over all things to 
the church," not only in wielding the means of grace, 
but in preparing the way for their reception, and in 



£8 



over-ruling all things for their success. The divine 
Redeemer is ever present, with all, with each of his 
faithful servants, by his living; power and attendant aid. 
They cannot go, where he is not. Wherever he is, 
it is on their side; "with them;" and to bless them, 
he loves the gospel; he loves the world; and he has 
appointed them to go forth, bearing the one unto the 
other; and will he not sustain them in their office? 
Will he surrender that "banner which he has given 
us to be displayed, because of the truth?" Will he 
who for the hope of Israel, trod the wine-press alone, 
when of the people there was none with him; and 
came with dyed garments from Bozrah, travelling 
in the greatness of his strength, now retire from the 
field, where his soldiery are contending with the pow- 
ers of darkness; and taking possession, in his name, of 
the hearts of men? 

This is a source of help, which no remoteness of 
place, no lapse of ages, no change of dispensation can 
at all impair. It is not merely God's favour; it is God 
Himself, with us; and it cannot waste, while he en- 
dures. 

What may be called providential interpositions, 
for the gospel, have, in latter times, exceeded even 
those vouchsafed to the apostles. The art of printing, 
that illustrious invention; the progress and diffusion of 
knowledge; the use of the magnet; the discovery of 
America; the growth of liberty; the present boundless 
commerce of the nations, opening innumerable channels 



29 



for our holy religion; the state of the Jews; the in 
creased number of pious and praying people in the 
world (though still so small) since the Apostles began 
their heroic work; the amount and variety of benevo- 
lent institutions established of late, in aid of Christianity ; 
the awakened spirit of inquiry that has gone abroad on 
religious subjects; and the state of the world at large, 
are the results of God's providence, in behalf of the 
gospel: and afford to its ministers, facilities in this 
way, more various and ample than were ever enjoyed 
before. It involves no small accountableness to live in 
such a day. It were at once an interesting, curious, 
and, to us, reproving inquiry to ask, how the Apostle 
Paul would have improved such bold and manifold 
auxiliaries, in extending the knowledge of his beloved 
Lord! 

6. Where is the human conscience? 

Does it not still respond, in real, though reluctant 
harmony, to the word of God? Is it not the recess in 
which, though in ruins, a religious nature is found? Is 
there not a way in men's hearts for some religion, and in 
the constitution of their nature for the christian? Is 
not the conscience with the faithful minister of Christ? 
And is there not now, as in primitive times, a footing, 
in that conscience, and that nature given, on which the 
herald of the cross may erect the standard and assert 
the claims of his injured sovereign? Thus the Lord of 
the conscience makes a way for 6 6 the entrance of his 

5 



30 



word" into the "deep interior" of the soul, through 
the minister of reconciliation, 

"By him the violated law speaks out 

Its thunders; and by him in strains as sweet 

As angels use, the gospel whispers peace." 

From a cursory consideration then, of these particu- 
lars, it most clearly appears, that the office, which the 
Head of the Church has committed to the ministers of 
the gospel for the conversion of the world, is accompa- 
nied, and sustained by the power of God, to the end of 
time; and that the man of God is, or may be, tho- 
roughly FURNISHED UNTO ALL GOOD WORKS, SO as tO 

make full proof of his ministry.* 

The second proposition then is indisputably true, 
viz: — that the ministers of Christ if faithful to their 
trust, may have, in every age of the world, all the 
helps that were afforded to the Apostles themselves, i. e. 
all that are essential to the right and successful dis- 
charge of the duties of the office. It remains to con- 
sider, 

III. That, as in every age, the ministers of the 

GOSPEL HAVE THE OFFICE WHICH GoD APPOINTED FOR 
THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD, and THE HELPS NE- 
CESSARY TO the RIGHT DISCHARGE OF ITS DUTIES: SO 
ANY FAILURE IN THAT GREAT WORK, MUST BE OWING 
TO A WANT OF THE PROPER SPIRIT AND CHARACTER.* Or, 



* 2 Tim. iii. 17, and ir. 5. 



in other words, if we had the spirit op the apos- 
tles, THEIR SUCCESS WOULD BE ESSENTIALLY OURS. 

It has been shewn already, that every departure from 
the divine plan in this momentous service, is evil, and 
must fail to the degree of its deviation. By a very ob- 
vious inference, it would seem to follow, that our suc- 
cess will be to the degree of our conformity to this 
plan: for besides that it puts honour on the Divinity, 
implicitly, and with due reverence to submit to his ar- 
rangement, it is a laying hold on the wisest and best 
plan, and using aright the divinely-adapted-provisions 
of the system. 

The spirit, therefore, which is appropriate to this sa- 
ered office, is ail that can be wanting towards a suitable 
success. 

Now, as the atmosphere is the proper element for the 
transmission of sound, and the figure of the sphere con- 
stitutes its facility for rotary motion, so there is an or- 
der of spirit and character, which is the fitness of a 
gospel-minister for his office, and will, to a very great 
degree, determine the measure of his success. 

The model of this peculiar character is, in very 
striking terms, delineated in the word of God. 

"If a ?nan desire the office of a bishop, he desireth 
a good work. Jl bishop must be blameless, vigilant, 
sober, of good behaviour, not self-willed, not given 
to wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, not a novice, 
not soon angry, a lover of good men, given to hos- 
pitality; holy, just, temperate, patient, apt to 



61 

teach, holding fast the faithful word; in doctrine^ 
shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity; in all 
things approving himself a minister of God; by 
pureness, by knowledge, by kindness, by the Holy 
Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the power of God, by 
the armour of righteousness on the right hand, and 
on the left. He must not strive, but be gentle unto 
all men, in meekness instructing those that oppose 
themselves; must preach the word, being instant in 
season, and out of season, reproving, rebuking, exhort- 
ing with all-long -suffering, watching in all things, 
enduring afflictions, fyc. so as to make full proof of 
the ministry. He must take heed to himself, and to 

HIS DOCTRINE, &C. CONTINUE IN THEM; GIVE HIMSELF 

wholly to them. While many corrupt the word of 
God, he, as of sincerity, as God, in the sight of God 
speaks Christ, and suffers all things that the minis- 
try be not blamed. In labours abundant, he en- 
dures hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 
He is given to prayer. He must be wise as a serpent, 
yet harmless as a dove; and not even count his own 
life dear, that he may finish his course with joy. 
Thus he becomes the representative of Christ to men; 
magnifies his office, glorifies God, is the salt of the 
earth; the light of the world. To all such it is said, 
(( Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
every creature: and lo! I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world."* 

* Epistles to Timothy and Titus passim: Math. v. 13, 14: 1 Cor. 
ix. 12: 2 Cor. ii. 17, &c. &c. &c. 



33 



Of the spirit thus described, the Apostles, without 
controversy, were the finest specimens ever exhibited 
to men. While we are to be u followers even of them 
only so far as ihey were of Christ," we may yet, 
safely make them a standard for ourselves. The ad- 
vantage of contemplating them as models, is, that we 
secure a subject for comparison. They must have un- 
derstood the spirit of the ministerial commission con- 
ferred by our Lord, in the language of the text. They 
first received it: they first acted under it: and there- 
fore we may fitly contrast their successors in the work 
of the gospel, with these primitive and princely models 
of the ministry. 

In glancing rapidly at their spirit, the mention of 
such qualities as ardent personal piety; as a passionate 
love, if you will allow the phrase, for the Lord Jesus; 
as a fervent affection for each other — so that when they 
met and mingled together, it was not as ecclesiastical 
gladiators, contending for victory, but as amiable 
brethren consulting for the peace of Jerusalem; as a 
profound knowledge of divine things, and its kindred 
quality, a supreme regard for the truth; as prudence, 
common sense, humility, fortitude, zeal, &c. &c. will 
at once suggest corresponding features in the apostolic 
character. 

While it will be impossible to dwell on this part of 
our subject, it is at the same time equally so, to do it 
justice without adequate examination. When therefore, 
we select and present to view, a few prominent traits, 



84 



they must be received only as specimens of other traits, 
and imperfect illustrations of the character from which 
they are derived. 

1. Theirs was eminently a spirit of prayer. 

We say a spirit of prayer: for prayer, even true 
prayer, and a spirit of prayer, are very different things. 
One is an occasional service; the other is a business. 
"They gave themselves continually to prayer, 
and to the ministry of the word."* By this spirit 
they attracted to their office, the divine helps provided, 
and girded themselves with the strength of the Al- 
mighty. They prayed like Jacob, wrestling all night 
for the blessing; and as Abraham did when he urged 
with God before Sodom, the work of intercession — so 
that he did plead, and prevail and plead again, and 
made one case of success, the plea for another petition — 
and thus he knew not how to stop asking, nor God to 
stop answering! Thus the Apostles bore on their ago- 
nizing hearts to God, at a throne of grace, the cause of 
a world perishing in sin. Prayer was the habit of their 
souls; the occupation of their lives. Thus did the an- 
cient prophets, and thus some of the reformers, pray: 
and if we may be permitted without irreverence, to 
pass the interval which separates his own, from all 
human examples, such was the blessed Master of us all, 
who spent whole nights in prayer to his Father in hea- 
ven! 



*Acts vi. 4. and i. 14: Romans i. 9, &c. 



35 



Now fathers and brethren, do we thus feel ourselves 
set ''between the porch and the altar" "iveeping," 
and interceding, "saying spare thy people Lord?"* 
Do we press God's promise home, and lodge it on the 
records of the skies, among the decreed things of God? 
Do we rise to that place where prayer is heard? Do we 
climb along the ascent of the promises, until, as it were, 
we strike the palpable heavens, and lay hold on the 
throne of God? If we did, we should be disappointed, 
when our prayers were not heard, and answered. Nay 
rather, we should not be disappointed; God would hear, 
and bless us! 

2. They were men distinguished by their faith. 

The Apostles seem to have carried about them, a 
confidence in the wisdom and efficacy of the divine 
arrangement, for spreading the gospel, which nothing 
could impair. "Setting the Lord always before 
them," they u went every where preaching the word" 
expecting the presence, and relying on the agency of 
God, to give success to their labours. They consider- 
ed themselves as constituting an enginery of moral 
causes, touched at every point, by the finger of God, 
"and made mighty through him who is head over 
all things to the church:"^ and "they felt themselves 
immortal till their work was done." " They walked by 
faith not by sight." They saw things as they are in 
the light of truth, in the judgment of God. They saw 



* Joel ii. 17. 



f Ephes. i. 22, ancl 2 Cor, x. 4, 



36 



sin and death, heaven and hell, and all things, in their 
real nature, and their just proportions. They were in- 
vested with eternity. Thus this world became a sha- 
dow, and the next the substance: thus they learned on 
the scale of an eternal existence, the worth and danger 
of the soul, the value of time, and the goodness and glory 
of the divine Redeemer. They seem to have felt the 
presence of the deity ordinarily, as really, though not 
as terribly, as the ancient Israelites did, when "Moses 
brought them forth out of the camp to meet with 
God as he descended on Mount Sinai:'' and to have 
felt habitually for sinners, as we do, when we see them 
dying without a Saviour: and they urged the work of 
the Lord with the intensity of men in a battle, who 
felt the real presence of enemies, dangers, and "all the 
circumstance of war.' 3 In proof of this, we need only 
point you to the history of their feelings and labours, 
as given to us in the word of God. 

3. Theirs was a spirit of unreserved, self 
dedication. 

It was a spirit marked by no narrow seeking of per- 
sonal aggrandizement: no selfish reserves, or partial 
surrenders: no asking, as of old, "to be put into the 
priesthood, to get a piece of bread:" no making of 
the pulpit, the sounding-board of their praise; or the 
church of the living God, a theatre for the display of 
learning, eloquence, and self, in the dress of the divine 
Redeemer. But they surrendered themselves whol- 
ly to the Saviour's service, and "denying themselves. 



37 



they left all, took up their cross and followed him. 9 ' 
For the hope of Israel, they gladly suffered the loss of 
all that such men could lose. How noble the disinter- 
estedness, how pure, and self-sacrificing the devotion 
to Israel's Redeemer, and to Israel's peace, which ha*- 
bitually felt and lived forth this sentiment, "If I be 
offered, upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, 
1 joy and rejoice with you all /"* 

When the cruel Sanhedrim, afraid as yet, to glut its 
vengeance on their blood, had "beaten them," and 
sternly forbidden them "to speak again in the name of 
Jesus," u they departed, rejoicing that they were 
counted worthy to suffer shame for his name; and 
daily, in the temple and in every house, ceased not 
to teach and to preach Jesus Christ." ii They glo- 
ried in tribulations." To the expostulations and the 
fears of his brethren at Csssarea, who to save his valued 
life, ''besought him not to go up to Jerusalem, Paul 
answered; what mean ye to weep and to break my 
heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but 
also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord 
Jesus:"^ "and the offer of deification at Lystra, more 
disturbed the serenity of Paul and Barnabas, than all 
their injuries had done."J What ineffable dishonour 
do their magnanimous spirit and extraordinary labours, 
pour upon the ambition, the love of ease, the aversion 
to trials, and the fear of death, which have so frequently 

* Phil. ii. 17. f Acts v. 41, 42, and xxi. 13. } Mrs. H. More's St. Patil. 



6 



38 



characterized their successors in the ministry of the 
gospel. With them to live was Christ; and therefore 
to die was gain, rich, and lasting as the glories of the 
skies. Blessed men! Illustrious Apostles! though the 
Holy Ghost did witness and experience rapidly con- 
firmed the testimony, that in every city, and on every 
shore, bonds and imprisonment, and cruel mockings 
abode your coming: yet none of these things moved 
you; neither counted ye your own lives dear, that you 
might finish your course with joy, and the ministry 
which you had received of your beloved Lord!* 

4. The Apostles were in an eminent degree, 
possessed op a missionary spirit. 

The Apostolic college was a missionary band, or- 
ganized and commissioned for the conversion of the 
world: and their duties, if not their spirit, have de- 
scended to their successors. By a missionary spirit, we 
mean one which rightly apprehends and fully feels, the 
responsibility of the ministerial office; and while it se- 
cures the entire possession, prompts to the proper use, 
of the divinely furnished helps of the service. It is a 
spirit which aspires steadily, to fulfil the commission 
our Master conferred in the text; a spirit which will 
act, while there is room for it to act; and if it weep 
not like Alexander for other worlds to win, will never 
pause, till it has pushed its conquests, to the last verge 
of this. 



*Acts xx. 



39 



There was about the Apostles, an enthusiastic love 
for the souls of men, and a noble daring in doing good, 
which would now be called, (as it was in their day,) 
madness, by the cautious calculators of common causes 
and effects. They had the spirit of true heroic enter- 
prize: they sunk not to the tame and timid quality, 
which delights in attempting little things, because suc- 
cess is easy, and failure brings no loss: nor did they 
rashly attempt things in themselves impracticable. 
Practicable possibilities, if we may be allowed to 
speak so, were their constant aim. Their plans were 
bold, and to the last degree, difficult and dangerous; 
yet, under God, always practicable, and almost always 
successful. They were as simple, as they were sublime. 
The world was their field; its salvation their prize. 
Deriving their "power" from the Son of God — "begin- 
ning at Jerusalem" — they pressed onward, and still on- 
ward, into all the world — over mountains, and over seas, 
over the demolished temples of heathen worship, over 
the crumbling thrones of earthly potentates, and the fal- 
ling strong holds of the prince of darkness — erecting on 
their ruins the empire of love, the dominion of the 
Bible: until quite spent in the glorious toil, they sank 
into the arms of their attendant Lord: and there, as they 
fell, while their spirits sprang to the reward on high, 
they laid their lifeless bodies, as the land-marks of 
their progress, and the trophies of their triumphant 
career. 



40 



Thus they girt the globe with a zone of light, in less 
than half a century. Their epitaph is recorded in the 
New Testament, in language which in the Old, is used 
to describe the universal diffusion of light by the sun, 
in his daily progress round the world.* "His going 
forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit to 
the end of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat 
thereof." In direct allusion to this it is written, "how 
shall they hear without a preacher? But I say have 
they not heard? Yes verily ', their sound went out 
into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of 
the world. 9 ' 

Such was the Apostolic success; and the principle is, 
because such was the Apostolic spirit; since by the 
divine arrangement, the one is the consequence of the 
other. For it is spoken of in the word of God, not 
only in connection with their spirit in particular, but 
also in the form of general propositions, in which the 
success of faithful ambassadors of Christ, and the fail- 
ure of those who are unfaithful to their trust, are re- 
spectively referred to this great principle. 66 Oh my 
people, they that lead thee cause thee to err; they 
destroy the way of thy paths; and ye that are led 
of them are destroyed, I have not sent these pro- 
phets; hearken not unto their words, they make you 
vain; they speak a vision of their own hearts, and 
not out of the mouth of the Lord. The pastors have 
not sought the Lord; therefore they shall not pros- 
* Romans x. 18, compared with J9 Psalm 1—7, and Acts ii. 5—13. 



41 



per. There shall be false teachers among you, who 
shall bring in damnable heresies; many shall follow 
their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way 
of truth shall be evil spoken of."* 

So on the other hand, "when the Lord giveth pas- 
tors according to his own heart," then "the people 
are fed with knoivledge and understanding." "I 
have set watchmen on thy walls, O Jerusalem, which 
shall never hold their peace, day nor night: ye that 
make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; and 
give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make 
Jerusalem a praise in the earth." While this pas- 
sage in the abstract, sustains the principle, it seems, 
without doubt, to refer to the times and the ministry 
of the New Testament church. ''If a man therefore, 
purge himself from these, (that is, from the evils, &c. 
just recited as attaching themselves to wicked minis- 
ters,) he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and 
meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good 
work." "Be thou an examjjle of the believers, in 
word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, 
in purity: give attendance to reading, to exhorta- 
tion, to doctrine; meditate upon these things, give 
thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may ap- 
pear to all: take heed unto thyself, and unto the doc- 
trine; continue in them, for in so doing thou shall 

* Isaiah iii. 12, and ix. 16; Jeremiah xxiii. 16, and x. 21; 2 Peter 
ii. 1, 2. 



42 



both save thyself) and them that hear thee. There 
shall be like jieople, like priest," &c. &c &c* 

And does it not seem consistent, that there should 
obtain an analogy in this respect, between the religion 
of Christ, and the constitution and course of nature: 
thai in the one as in the other kingdom, things should 
produce their like:\ and that there should be the same 
certainty in moral as in natural causes? He who is 
alike the God of nature and the God of grace, has in 
his word adduced the operations of the world of matter, 
to illustrate the method, and to assure us of the cer- 
tainty, of the operations of the world of mind. "As 
the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and 
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and 
maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed 
to the sower and bread to the eater — so shall my word 
be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return 
unto me void, but shall accomplish that which I please, 
and prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye 
shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace, &c; 
instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and in- 
stead of the briar shall come up the myrtle-tree; and 
it shall be unto the Lord for a name, (a memorial) for 
an everlasting sign, that shall not be cutoff." "For 
ever Lord thy word is settled in heaven: thy faith- 
fulness is unto all generations; thou hast established 
the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day 

* Jeremiah iii. 15: Isaiah Ixii. 6, 7: 1 Tim. 4 chap.: Hosea iv. 9. 
i Gal 5 :, vi. 7—9. 



43 



according to thine ordinances: for all are thy ser- 
vants."* 

"The voice that rolls the stars along, 

Speaks all the promises. 
How reasonable too, does it appear that it should be 
so? that when a man goes forth unsanctified, and un- 
attended, he should be unblest? and when he goes 
forth breathing the spirit, and sustained by the power 
of God — in the office, after the manner, and to the end 
appointed, that he should be blessed, and made to tri- 
umph in Christ Jesus? Such men as the Apostles, are 
specimens of what they preach to others; their lives 
become a mighty mean of conviction to the minds of 
men, being an accumulative moral evidence of the truth 
of Christianity. They come forth as visitants from 
eternity, the bright and blessed ambassadors of heaven: 
and though bone of our bone, and girt to our nature by 
every strong and tender sympathy, the style of their 
character is novel and unearthly. It bodies forth to 
view, in a faint but faithful copy, the glories of that 
Redeemer, whose love and whose mercy they proclaim. 
While it tells men what to do, it shews them what to 
be; teaching as well by the life as by the doctrine; at- 
tracting, while instructing mankind. 

And blessed be God, the testimony in real life of the 
truth of our principle, has never been withdrawn from 
the church of Christ. A Xavier, and a Vanderkemp^ 



•■Isaiah Iv. 10—13; Psalm cxix. 89—91. 



44 



and a Brainerd, and a Martyn, and a Wolfe; a Whit- 
field, a Davies and an Edwards, (not to mention many 
of other ages, and many yet spared to this,) have ex- 
emplified both at home and abroad, the Apostolic spi- 
rit, with much of the Apostolic success. They have 
'confirmed to us the truth, that such a spirit, and such 
success, visit our earth in a wedlock-union, 4 joined 
together of God." From the great Apostle of the 
Gentiles, down to our Martyn, have they appeared in 
thin but bright succession, to reprove the clergy, to bless 
the church, and to adorn the age which bore them; 
the successors of the Apostles, the models of a true 
christian ministry, the pledges of that order of men, 
who are appointed to bring on the triumphs of the latter 
day — and like the prophets of the olden time, at once 
the condemnation and the glory of the world. 

It is striking, here to remark, that ministers of the 
gospel, who have at distant intervals, been especially 
successful in "turning many to righteousness," have 
commonly found those seasons preceded, and attended 
by an unusual degree (for them,) of the spirit which 
we have described, as eminently characteristic of the 
Apostles. And it has, for the most part been the fact, 
that this influence has begun with the pastor, then ap- 
peared in the people of God around him, and then in 
the hearts of repenting sinners. This is in accordance 
with the plan of God. Our ordinary lethargy, and 
lukewarmness in the ministry, unfit us for our work; 
and we must pass from this most unworthy state, 



45 



through a preparatory crisis, kindred in its nature, to 
that which immediately precedes the conversion of the 
soul. Or, in other words, when a minister is restored 
to the spirit of the gospel, when he puts on the whole 
armour of God, when he is really roused to an appro- 
priate devotedness in the work of the Lord, and is 
baptized, as it were with the Holy Ghost, then Heaven 
is prepared to bless him; and on the steady and con- 
sistent exercise of such a ministry, the continued effu- 
sion of the Spirit might be with confidence expected. 

It would appear then, that the success of the gospel, 
is made, in the divine arrangement, to depend upon 
the spirit of its ministers. 

But some may be ready to say, "we freely own that 
the gospel eminently triumphed under the ministry of 
the Apostles, and that this was owing, under God, to 
their spirit. But then, what is the success of the 
gospel? Does it necessarily impart salvation in its tri- 
umph? Does not the Apostle Paul thank God, who 
always caused him to triumph in Christ, in them that 
perished, as well as in them that were saved?" We 
remark, in reply, that the various operations of the 
gospel, in restraining the crimes of men, in displaying 
the perfections and glory of God, and even in that 
fearful, judicial process, which is called by the same 
Apostle, "a savour of death unto death," may be es- 
teemed the triumph of Christianity. Yet "God sent 

NOT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO CONDEMN THE 

world:" the world was condemned already: "but 
7 



46 



THAT THE WORLD, THROUGH HIM, MIGHT BE SA- 
VED."* 

All effects, therefore, short of the redemption of the 
world, though they may greatly contribute to the pub- 
lic good of the universe, and swell the tide of the di- 
vine glory, fail of the gospel's grand design. The 
"savour of death," accompanies the publication of the 
christian religion, as bloodshed and slaughter, attend 
the victories of a great and beneficent prince, while 
reclaiming a rebellious province of his empire. "It is a 
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, 
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
ners "\ Hence the appropriate influence of the truth 
preached by his ministering servants is not to destroy 
but to save. 

But others, who admit this very obvious view of the 
nature of that success which is appropriate to the faith- 
ful ministrations of the gospel, may yet be disposed to 
start a question as to its degree. "How much is to be 
expected from each age, and each man? How much 
that is done must appear? And how soon is it to be 
expected?" The very suggestion of such inquiries 
would, we fear, disclose an unhappy ignorance of the 
genius of our holy religion. It indicates a kindred 
spirit to that which should ask, how much personal 
piety must I have in order to be saved? The soldier 
of the cross has a standard of achievements, indefi- 



* John iii. 17. 



f 1 Timothy, i. 15. 



47 



nitely lofty, and a theatre of action indefinitely large. 
Its width and grandeur are adapted to the nature of the 
human, and especially of the christian soul. "The field 
is the world:" and his measure of devotion is, "to be al- 
ways abounding in the work of the Lord."* His of- 
fice, his helps and his sphere of service invite the expec- 
tation of ample success. The shortness of human life, 
and its eternal issues; the mercy, and power, and 
promises, and faithfulness of his divine Redeemer; and 
the whole nature of the case, afford the earnest of speedy 
and continued results of good. "Now is the accepted 
time" for the sinner, to whom he is sent; "to-day is 
the day of salvation" under his ministry; to-day 
God is prepared to bless him: and whilst, (as it was 
with the Apostles, in an extraordinary measure,) the 
field of his labours may continue to "bring forth," 
when he has gone, there is yet to be expected an habi- 
tual, visible sequence of the effect upon the cause. 
Much may be impalpable, and to men, unknown, that 
is connected with the remote or general influences of 
the system; but in those effects of the gospel which 
"accompany salvation," there is a steady and intrinsic 
tendency to their own manifestation. Thus the faith 
of God's servants in the method of his grace, is from 
time to time confirmed; and thus the world is con- 
vinced by a continued demonstration, of the divine 
origin, and supports of Christianity. 



* 1 Cor. xv. 58. 



48 



It appears then, that there is a style of character 
which constitutes the fitness of a gospel minister for 
his work; and that from the word of God; from the 
spirit and success of the Apostles; from the analogy 
of the christian religion to the constitution and course 
of nature; from the history of the ministry; and the 
experience of those who have, at different periods, 
been eminently useful in this office, this style of cha- 
racter^ or spirit, is intimately connected with the ap- 
propriate success of the gospel in the world: and, 
therefore, though the Deity may use bad men to do 
good in his church, and good and faithful men may be- 
come the savour of death to the rebellious; yet as a 
great fact, his true ambassadors will be blessed and 
made useful, in the degree of their devotion to his 
cause; and the false prophet, indignant heaven 
warns off with its fearful caveat, "what hast thou 
to do to declare my statutes ;" or frowns out upon 
him in deserted ordinances, and expressive desola- 
tions! 

Having, therefore, arrived at this radical principle 
in the divine plan, we have but to look to the ministe- 
rial spirit of any age, to get a full reason for the state 
of the church and of the world during that age. Let 
us then, for a moment, apply this principle to the reli- 
gious history of our own times. 

We will not deepen the contrast of our own, with 
the apostolic spirit, by going over in the comparison, 
the several particulars, in which we summarily sketch- 



49 



ed their character: but let us institute a parallel on the 
last, as a measure for the rest. 

What then is our spirit of missions? It is freely- 
owned, that this spirit, in our day, greatly exceeds that 
of the ages before us; that it is rising in the church, 
and in the ministry; that it is not only increasing in 
amount, but improving in character; that examples are 
occasionally afforded us, of signal success in the foreign 
field; and that tokens of better things to come are dis- 
played to the prospect of the age. But what are our 
numbers in the ministry, compared with their little 
band? We marshal more separate and populous com- 
munions than they numbered Apostles. We enume- 
rate, in those protestant denominations, commonly con- 
ceded to hold what is called saving truth, for every 
Apostle, many hundred preachers; and they are en- 
dued with the essential functions, and have, or might 
have all the necessary helps of the ministry; and what 
are they doing? Did not that little band of apos- 
tolic spirits do more in their brief but brilliant day, 
than the whole church and its myriads of appended 
preachers are achieving now, for the salvation of the 
world? Does not Peter counterpoise the toils and the 
triumphs of "his thousand;" and Paul of "his ten 
thousand" modern ministers? 

In that branch of the christian church to which we 
are attached, of which we may more freely and more 
accurately speak; and which is commonly esteemed 
not "behind the chiefest" of her sisters — how does 



50 



this subject appear? We have in the ministry or on its 
threshhold, some fifteen hundred men; and yet proba- 
bly not one to one hundred in the foreign service: 
whilst the number of our people at home, is not to 
that of the heathen world, as one to one hundred! 
Awful fact! A two fold disproportion, and on each 
hand, how enormous! And yet neither are we the 
clergy, nor the people of our charge, in any visible 
measure, bestirring ourselves for a greater effort; or 
even reproaching and repenting us for the sad stagna- 
tion of this noble cause! on the contrary, ours is the 
language of self-gratulation at the superiority of our 
zeal, to the zeal of our fathers; and we boast of the 
missionary spirit of the age! 

And then as to the domestic work, it is really true, 
that home-missionaries, though if devoted men, they 
stand well nigh abreast their brethren abroad, in toils, 
and "exploits" for the divine Redeemer, are esteemed 
an inferior order of clergy to local ministers. They are 
looked at as repudiated by our localities, and as wan- 
derers, for want of talents to attract attention, and se- 
cure a home. We seem to think men must be local, 
to be respectable, or useful. Hence a system has 
arisen which is unspeakably injurious. The mission- 
ary spirit is well nigh banished; yes, by the public 
sentiment, and even ecclesiastical provisions of the 
church — legislated out of it. We have no established, 
authorized plan for a perpetual order of missionary 
men; and while in spots, "a garden smiles," over the 



51 



continent around, spreads a wilderness. The "travel- 
ling system" of our Wesleyan-Methodist brethren, 
excellent, in its place, is the opposite extreme to ours: 
and we suppose that a combination of both is essential 
to the supreme, and permanent success of either. The 
steady operation of such a system, not so extended in 
its circles of action, as to scatter the influence too 
thinly, with a reference to the settlement of pastors so 
soon as a people might be able, and disposed, must be- 
come the occasion of unbounded good. But as it is the 
"aggressive principle," i. e., the missionary spirit of the 
gospel, has no adequate operation amongst us. We 
wait for men to cry for help, before we carry them the 
offer of the gospel. But the divine provision is, "go," 
and make them sensible of their wants, of which they 
are by no means aware, till the light of the preached 
word discloses them; and then their sense of ability 
to support a pastor, will grow with the desire to secure 
his labours. 

And farther, even where these preliminary steps have 
been taken, and a pastor has been duly established, 
what is the general state? In how many of our congre- 
gations do the office, the helps and the spirit of the 
ministry, seem in active operation, and producing the 
promised results? And, not to speak of the interior 
deadness of the churches, what is their spirit of mis- 
sions? what influence for the gospel, and for the wil- 
derness of sin around, goeth forth from these nurseries 
of the truth? Is there any such missionary zeal, either 



52 



for the cause at home, or the cause abroad, as makes 
every man our neighbour, and impels us, in the ten- 
derness and disinterestedness of the christian spirit, to 
love our neighbour as ourselves? and especially to 
love that immortal and perishing soul of our neighbour 
which constitutes all his value, and makes his breast a 
battle-ground on which heaven and hell hold high con- 
tention for supremacy? 

It appears then, that the whole missionary enter- 
prize has suffered, yes greatly suffered in our hands! 
and that the spirit of our day, with all its boasted tri- 
umphs, cowers at the side, not only of Paul and Barna- 
bas, and James and John, but of Huss, of Luther and 
of Knox, in apostolical achievements for our Lord. 

We shrink from the approach of toils, dangers and 
sacrifices in the Redeemer's cause. Amidst all the 
names, and marshalled administrations of the christian 
church, not one, the Moravians excepted, is avowed- 
ly missionary in its organization, and adopts as her 
birth-right, the perils and the glories of the foreign 
service. These high adventures fright us from the 
field. We have no spirit, no blood of martyrs. We 
are afraid to die for Jesus Christ. We seem to think 
blood spilt in such a cause, a wasteful sacrifice. 

In winding up this protracted discussion, we think 
then we are permitted to repeat, as sufficiently proved 
and illustrated, the proposition with which we set out, 
viz: "that the ministers of reconciliation, being 

THE AUTHORISED FUNCTIONARIES IN THE GREAT WORK 



53 



OF CONVERTING THE WORLD, ANY FAILURE IN ITS SUC- 
CESS, MUST ALWAYS BE OWING MAINLY, TO THEIR 

abuse of their solemn trust." For, 1. they have 
the office which God appointed as a standing ordi- 
nance, for the conversion of the world; 2. they have 
all the helps necessary to the right and successful 
discharge of the duties of the office; and therefore, 
3. if they have the spirit, or form of character pro- 
per to the office, they must be successful. 

The following conclusions, omitting others, seem 
necessarily to proceed from the foregoing views; and 
need only to be stated, that their truth, and importance 
may at once be acknowledged. 

Ministers of the gospel, are mainly responsible 
for the conversion of the world. It would have im- 
paired the unity of the subject, to introduce into the 
discussion, remarks on the responsibility of the people 
of God as a church and as individuals, in reference to 
the subject in hand. But since ministers are official- 
ly set apart, and furnished for this work — and as a 
great fact, must succeed, if they are faithful to their 
t rU st — the conclusion is irresistible, that if they forbear 
to "go" and "preach the gospel to every creature," 
they are for that, accountable to God: if they "go" 
forth, not apprehending their official supports, nor pos- 
sessing their official spirit, they cannot make full proof 
of their ministry, and hence they must fail; and for 
that, they are accountable. The church must account 
to God, for her criminal lethargy in this service; and 
8 



54 



the revolted world bear the curse of a violated law, and 
a rejected Saviour; but upon the ministry of this and 
other ages, is devolved the awful charge, of abusing 
those means which are adapted to rouse and purify the 
church, and to overcome the resistance of the world — 
and of having thus, in a principal degree, contributed 
to retard the conversion of the world. It is a respon- 
sibility indefinite^ great; and cannot be distributively 
divided unto each: but it is enough to make each of us 
tremble. Each should ask, "what obliged the Apostles 
more than us, to be foreign missionaries, and self-de- 
voted servants of Jesus Christ? for how much of the 
present state of the church and world, shall I have to 
account? How much is there, that I could, and do not 
prevent, of the endless perdition of men? How much 
might I avail, in the hands of Heaven, if fully awake, 
and in action, toward the conversion of the world ?" 
These questions must be met, if not before, at the 
judgment seat of Christ! 

We learn in the light of this subject, the superla- 
tive importance of those institutions, which have 
for their object, the selecting, training, and sending 
forth youth of the right spirit and qualifications, 
to publish salvation to the perishing kindred and 
nations of the earth. 

It is sufficiently apparent, that none should be in- 
duced to enter on this service, who are not entirely 
surrendered to the Lord, and endowed for the due per- 
formance of its high and holy functions. Yet "the 



55 



harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 
pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will 
send forth labourers into his harvest."* 

In fine, so far as we see, the missionary cause 
cannot extensively triumph, without men of a spirit 
and order, almost unknown to the day in which we 
live. 

There is a palpable disproportion between our spirit, 
and our field of enterprize. Do not our self-denial, 
and our zeal, and our devotion to the work, find their 
rivals in the every-day-achievements of patriots, and 
soldiers, and navigators for discovery, and in all the 
more kindling occupations of the world — though things 
temporal furnish all the motive to action, and their hori- 
zon takes its boundary from the things that are seen? 
We must recal the spirit of primeval days. Oh for 
other Pauls to lead us on to victory, in the name of 
Jesus! The stake must be restored to the catalogue of 
missionary honours, ere the sons of the church will 
awake, and come up to the help of their few heroic, 
but deserted brethren, who are kindling their watch 
fires, along the dark frontier of the heathen world. 
And do we want more Missionaries' graves! Already 
the bones of Martyn, and of Hall, and of Parsons, and 
of Fisk, and of other "brothers beloved," both at 
home and abroad, speak out to us from the ground, and 
in murmurs that reprove delays, call us to the field in 
which they fell. May their tombs be points of attrac- 
* Matthew H. 37. 38. 



lion, to ;flfe missionary spirit of the age! may their 
ashes give out life, like the bones of Elisha! 

To the youthful soldiers of the cross, who are but 
now putting on them the armour of God, are the eyes 
of the universe directed as the best hope of weeping 
Zion, and a world perishing in sin, "I write unto you 
young men because ye are strong. " You stand amidst 
the twilight of receding darkness, and the rising day of 
latter glory.* Assume then, the full helps, and true 
spirit of your sacred and peculiar office, and expand 
your desires and labours, to the utmost limit of that field/* 
in which it was intended to expatiate. "Lift up your 
eyes; look on the fields; for they are white, already to 
harvest, "t You are summoned to come up to the help 
of the Lord, against the mighty! With his vesture dipt 
in blood, he calls you to his side. If you can do no 
more, with Thomas say, "Let us go that we may die 

WITH HIM."t 

*Zechariah xiy. 6—10. f John iv. 35. J John xi. 16- 



THE END. 



i 



3 



^ o A < Z&f* % J? ...... . 













* ap/T??^ " 








' 7. s * ,6 









Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

I| Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
^jj Treatment Date: May 2006 

\> ' C %^ > PreservationTechnologies 

V S S .V<>^ O A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
\p Cranbeny Township, PA 1 6066 

v. 0724)779-2111 





